Date: Tue, 11 Apr 1995 07:13:35 -0500
From: "Timothy C. Frazer"
Subject: Re: needs+past participle
A few more comments on Bev Flanigan's post esp. her comment that needs +
pp. is confined to South Midland speakers:
Someone should figure out how to test this objectively. Do SM
phonological features imply the presence of neeeds + pp. or vice versa,
or is there no relationship? In other words, will someone with flattened
/ai/, or with some of the features of the Southern Shift, always have
needs + pp.? Or will needs + pp. predict SM pronunciation? I would
guess the latter not to be true, but can't prove it.
The trick here is that it's easy to elicit the pronunciation features in
a short, taped interview, but you have little control over getting needs
+ pp. The only way Murray gets his data is from an evaluative QR, which
can't elicit pronunciation.
Another point: I'll bet theres an implicational relationship between
needs + ed. and "the cat wants in."
But the latter feature seems to be more common farther north than the
former.
Another point: there is no demographic reason for needs + pp. to be
exclusively SM, since it comes from PA and is common in places like
Pittsburgh. But its possible that the inequality of attendance time in
public schools may have affected its geographic distribution in places
like Ohio; that is, public schools (which paid more attention to oral
language a century ago than now) may have stamped it out in places lke
Columbus.
Tim